THE Government will abandon plans for a 50-mile toll motorway from Birmingham to Manchester today, after deciding that the £3 billion project would be too expensive and damaging to the environment.

The M6 Expressway had been intended to relieve severe congestion on the existing M6, which carries 140,000 vehicles a day and last year topped a poll as the road drivers most hate to use. Some 27 miles of the M6 further south was opened as a toll road in December 2003.

The new section would have run parallel to the M6 from Junction 11A north of Birmingham to Junction 19 in Cheshire.There would have been two lanes in each direction and motorists would have paid about £5 a journey, saving an average of half an hour.

But Stephen Ladyman, the Transport Minister, will announce that the Government is reverting to the old idea of widening the M6 by an extra lane on each side.

The latest decision will anger motoring groups, which had hoped that the expressway would be part of a network of privately funded toll motorways relieving traffic bottlenecks across Britain.

The Government claimed in 2004 that the expressway would allow much faster journey times and would avoid several years of roadworks while the M6 was widened.

Alistair Darling, then the Transport Secretary, said: “There are a number of advantages to an expressway. It would provide motorists and businesses with a choice. It would provide double the extra capacity at a lower cost than widening the existing road by one lane, and would not cause disruption to road users while it was being built.” But the Department for Transport has been unable to attract private investors to fund the project.

It has also come under strong pressure from environmental groups: the scheme would have damaged a dozen sensitive sites, including two sites of special scientific interest — Stafford Castle and Trentham Gardens, near Stoke-on-Trent.

Mr Ladyman will say today that widening the M6, due to be completed by 2017, will take far less land than the expressway. He will claim that the widening would not have been finished any sooner, even if the department had not spent two years considering the expressway.

But the RAC Foundation voiced frustration last night over the slow progress in tackling a congestion problem. Edmund King, the foundation’s director, said: “The need for improvements was flagged up at least two decades ago. Since the expressway was announced two years ago, we have lived in hope that we finally have a government willing to think long-term and be visionary on transport.

“If the expressway is abandoned, we will be back to square one. It will be a missed opportunity to begin transforming our road network.”

Motorway traffic has increased by 37 per cent in the past ten years, but the network has grown by only 0.5 per cent, or 175 miles. Motorways carry a fifth of all traffic but represent less than 1 per cent of the total length of all roads.

The Highways Agency announced measures yesterday to prevent the extra lane that is being built around the M25, London’s orbital motorway, from becoming as congested as the existing road. Traffic lights will be installed on slip roads and vehicles will be allowed to enter the motorway only when there is a gap in traffic.

The technique, known as ramp metering, has been shown to reduce congestion caused when queues of traffic attempt to converge.

The speed limit will also be reduced at busy times on the whole of the M25 to ensure a smoother flow. This happens already on the western section near Heathrow.

Douglas Alexander, the Transport Secretary, said: “We are planning to invest over £2 billion on widening the M25, but the route is already heavily congested. Traffic continues to grow and we have to accept that widening roads is not the only answer. Steps must be taken to manage increasing traffic demand and retain the benefits of the extra lanes.”